Broad Front (Uruguay) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Broad Front Frente Amplio
President	Fernando Pereira
Founder	Líber Seregni
Founded	5 February 1971; 53 years ago (1971-02-05)
Headquarters	Colonia 1367, Montevideo
Ideology	Democratic socialism Socialism of the 21st century Progressivism
Political position	Left-wing
Regional affiliation	COPPPAL São Paulo Forum
International affiliation	Socialist International Progressive Alliance
Colors	Red      Blue      White
Chamber of Deputies	42 / 99
Senate	13 / 30
Intendencias	3 / 19
Mayors	32 / 125
Party flag

The Broad Front (Spanish: Frente Amplio, FA) is a left-wing political coalition in Uruguay. It was the ruling party of Uruguay from 2005 to 2020 and has produced two presidents: José Mujica (2010–2015) and Tabaré Vázquez (2005–2010; 2015–2020). Since 1999, it has been the largest party in Uruguay's General Assembly.

History

Frente Amplio was founded as a coalition of more than a dozen fractured leftist parties and movements in 1971. The first president of the front and its first candidate for the presidency of the country was General Liber Seregni. The front was declared illegal during the 1973 military coup d'état and emerged again in 1984 when democracy was restored in Uruguay.

In 1994 Progressive Encounter (Encuentro Progresista) was formed by several minor independent factions and the Frente Amplio. EP and FA started contesting elections jointly under the name Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio. Later another force, Nuevo Espacio, became linked to the front. Thus it started contesting elections as Encuentro Progresista - Frente Amplio - Nueva Mayoria.

In 2005 member organizations of Progressive Encounter and New Majority (essentially Nuevo Espacio) merged into the front, and the coalition took the name of the larger force, Frente Amplio. Previously, EP and later NM had been allied with FA but organizationally separate structures.

The alliance is formed by:

• Asamblea Uruguay (Uruguay Assembly) led by Danilo Astori
• Partido Socialista del Uruguay (Socialist Party of Uruguay) led by Daniel Martínez
• Partido Comunista del Uruguay (Communist Party of Uruguay) led by Eduardo Lorier
• Corriente 78 (Current 78)
• Nuevo Espacio (New Space) led by Rafael Michelini
• Vertiente Artiguista (Artiguist Stream) led by Enrique Rubio
• Movimiento de Participación Popular (Movement of Popular Participation) led by Lucía Topolansky
• Partido Demócrata Cristiano del Uruguay (Christian Democratic Party of Uruguay)
• Partido de los Comunes (Party of the Communes)
• Confluencia Frenteamplio (Broad Front Confluence)
• Alianza Progresista (Progressive Alliance) led by Rodolfo Nin Novoa
• Partido por la Victoria del Pueblo (People's Victory Party)

Pre-2004 election: economic crisis

Starting with the election of Luis Alberto Lacalle of the National Party in 1989, economic reform designed to quickly modernize the country began, which led to a devaluing of the peso and laws protecting banking secrecy. This secrecy led to Uruguayan banks becoming a place to launder money from illegal businesses. By the turn of the century, half the nation had to survive in the informal economy. In 2002, the economic crisis of Brazil and Argentina spread to Uruguay, which crashed as a result of lacking productive power. In August of that year, the nation received 1.5 billion US dollars from the IMF to try and help with the crisis. This was the state of the nation when the Broad Front began campaigning for the 2004 election.

The Broad Front firmly established itself as the country's third major political force at the 1994 elections. Its presidential candidate, Tabaré Vázquez, who replaced longtime leader Seregni as the party's standardbearer, finished with the most votes of any individual candidate. However, under the Ley de Lemas system then in use, Vázquez was denied the presidency because the Broad Front finished with the third-most votes of any party, behind the Colorados and Blancos. At the time, the highest-finishing candidate of the party winning the most votes was elected president. At the same time, the Broad Front surged to 31 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and nine seats in the Senate.

The Ley de Lemas was scrapped for presidential elections in favor of a two-round system for the 1999 elections. Vázquez led the field in the first round but lost the runoff to the Colorados' Jorge Batlle after the two traditional parties set aside their long rivalry to defeat him. At the same time, the Broad Front became the largest party in the legislature.

2004 election: Tabaré Vazquez and economic reform

The party's victorious 2004 campaign was the first instance of a left-leaning party gaining the majority in Uruguay. Two of the major reasons the party took power in 2004 was that there was a substantial movement towards more moderate policies and that their support of an increased welfare state created a bond with working-class people tired of the neo-liberalist practices of the end of the twentieth century.

When Tabaré Vázquez first took the position of President with a Broad Front majority in the Uruguayan congress, he quickly moved to strengthen diplomatic relations with other Latin American countries, including Cuba. Important to the future success of the party is the US$100 million anti-poverty program that Vazquez signed early in his career, which helped to ensure the support of the lower class in future elections. Uruguay was in need of economic reform when Vazquez stepped into power in 2005, as it was struggling to recover from the crisis of 2002 with a third of the country still below the poverty line. An important aspect of the economic development was the new Minister of Economics and Finance, Danilo Astori, who worked to create a good relationship with the IMF and obtained the foreign investment, needed to kick start a paper pulp industry. Economic reform was also highlighted by a change in the immigration policy of the US president and increased beef exports to the European Union.

2009 election: Mujica and social liberation

Since gaining power, the party has maintained the support of the electorate, as analysis of the 2009 election has led to some conclusions that the trust in the stable government played a large part in keeping the Broad Front in power. After the 2009 election, former guerrilla José Mujica became president and during his time in power, a number of leftist social policies were passed. In April 2013 same-sex marriage was passed, supported by the party who took a hard-line stance against the role of the church in legislation on the matter. The economy continued to grow with Astori transitioning from Minister of Economics and Finance to Vice President, a position he used to continue to advertising Uruguay as a safe place for foreign investment.

2014 election: Tabaré Vazquez is re-elected

The Broad Front has supported the re-election of Tabaré Vazquez in the 2014 election, which Vazquez won with 56,63% at the second turn, defeating National Party's candidate Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou. During its second mandate, Vazquez faced strong criticism from the opposition because of its refusal to cut political ties with Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, despite allegations of violations of human rights.

2019 election: Out of government

The Broad Front supported Daniel Martinez for the 2019 general election. Martinez arrived first at the first turn but was defeated in the run-off by Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou of the National Party (also endorsed by Colorado Party and Open Cabildo). For the first time in 15 years, the Broad Front was defeated at the polls. The party also lost its majority and in the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate, while remaining the largest party in the General Assembly.

Splits

In its history, despite attracting political factions from other parties over time, the Broad Front has also suffered some splits as well:

• In 1989, the Party for the Government of the People and the Christian Democratic Party of Uruguay left the Broad Front to form a new moderate-left coalition.
• In 1993, the far-left Oriental Revolutionary Movement split and formed a political party on its own.
• In April 2006 there was another split from the far-left: the March 26 Movement and other groups left and formed a new coalition, Popular Assembly (later known as Popular Unity).

Ideology

Broad Front consists primarily of progressive political parties, being defined as Artiguist, popular, democratic, anti-oligarchy, anti-imperialist, anti-racist, and anti-patriarchy. In economics, tends to follow social-democratic or even democratic socialist policies, with expanded social programs. It has major internal factions characterized as social-liberal, Marxist, communist, and eco-socialist. However, not all the parties in the Broad Front lean left, indeed some minor factions are more fiscally or socially conservative. Uruguay Assembly of Danilo Astori and New Space of Rafael Michelini can be considered centrist parties, besides Astori has followed fiscally conservative policies as finance minister.

Internal elections

2004

In 2004 the first internal elections for EP-FA-NM was held. Previously elections had only been held within FA.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

Election	Party candidate	Running mate	Votes	%	Votes	%	Result
			First Round		Second Round
1971	Líber Seregni	Juan José Crottogini	304,275	18.3%			Lost
1984	Juan José Crottogini	José D'Elía	401,104	21.3%			Lost
1989	Liber Seregni	Danilo Astori	418,403	20.35%			Lost
1994	Tabaré Vázquez	Rodolfo Nin Novoa	621,226	30.6%			Lost
1999			861,202	40.1%	982,049	45.9%	Lost
2004			1,124,761	51.7%			Elected Y
2009	José Mujica	Danilo Astori	1,105,262	47.96%	1,197,638	54.63%	Elected Y
2014	Tabaré Vázquez	Raúl Sendic	1,134,187	47.81%	1,226,105	53.48%	Elected Y
2019	Daniel Martínez	Graciela Villar	949,376	40.49%	1,152,271	49.21%	Lost

Chamber of Deputies and Senate elections

Election	Votes	%	Chamber seats	+/−	Senate seats	+/−	Position	Size
1971	304,275	18.3%	18 / 99	New	5 / 30	New	Opposition	3rd
1984	401,104	21.3%	21 / 99	3	6 / 30	1	Opposition	3rd
1989	418,403	20.35%	21 / 99		7 / 30	1	Opposition	3rd
1994	621,226	30.8%	31 / 99	10	9 / 31	2	Opposition	3rd
1999	861,202	40.1%	40 / 99	9	12 / 30	3	Opposition	1st
2004	1,124,761	51.7%	52 / 99	12	17 / 30	5	Majority	1st
2009	1,105,262	47.96%	50 / 99	2	16 / 30	1	Majority	1st
2014	1,134,187	47.81%	50 / 99		15 / 30	1	Majority	1st
2019	949,376	40.49%	42 / 99	8	13 / 30	2	Opposition	1st

See also

In Spanish: Frente Amplio (Uruguay) para niños

• Politics of Uruguay